Proper People - Early Asylum Life
- enables the reader to travel back to the early nineteenth century to meet some of the mentally ill patients who passed through Yorkshire’s West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum in Wakefield

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Tuesday, 9 January 2018

Calendar of Speaking Engagements for 2018

After a very successful
first full year as a public speaker delivering his inaugural illustrated
presentation Early Asylum Life to
family and local history societies, Probus clubs and other interested
organisations across Yorkshire and neighbouring counties, David has been taking
bookings for 2018.

Considerable time has been spent researching and developing a new presentation Evolution of Asylum Patient
Photographyto place before interested groups during this year and
beyond. Audiences who haven’t yet heard Early
Asylum Life are recommended to first book that presentation as an
introduction to the subject.

Early Asylum Life:

The audience travels back
in time, becoming a “fly on the wall” in one of the 19th century’s
earliest County Asylums in England, the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum,
Yorkshire which opened in 1818. The voices of the insane poor are heard through
the words of their physicians, relatives, and very specially, the patients
themselves, using material from the UNESCO award winning collection of original
case notes and other asylum records held by West Yorkshire Archive Service.
Listeners learn in intimate detail about why they were committed, how they were
treated and what became of them and their families.

Evolution of Asylum Patient Photography:

The archives of the West Riding Pauper
Lunatic Asylum in Wakefield contain hundreds of photographs of the insane poor.
Rare examples date from 1868, by which time pioneering photographers at other
institutions had been capturing patients’ images since the 1850s. Asylum
Director James Crichton-Browne, the driving force behind the use of photography
in Yorkshire, corresponded with celebrated naturalist Charles Darwin enclosing
numerous patients’ portraits, usually annotated with a diagnosis of their
illness. Through a presentation rich in images captured nearly 150 years ago
the audience learns what motivated photography, how it evolved during the 19th century
and what legacy remains today.

Contact David at david@scrimgeour.biz to
check his latest availability.

Bookings taken for “Early Asylum Life”

Low
Moor Local History Group

Aldersgate
Methodist Church,

Cleckheaton
Road,

Low
Moor,

BRADFORD,

BD12
0TW

2:30pm,
Friday 2nd February, 2018

Huddersfield
Local History Society

University
of Huddersfield

Brontë
Lecture Theatre,

Room
BLG/05,

Queensgate,

HUDDERSFIELD,

HD1 3DH

7:30pm,
Monday 26th February, 2018

Barwick-in-Elmet
& Scholes Probus Club

John
Rylie Centre,

Carrfield
Road,

Barwick
in Elmet,

LEEDS,

LS15
4JB

10:00am,
Tuesday 27th February, 2018

East
Yorkshire Family History Society

Beverley
Cricket Club,

Recreation
Park Lane,

Norwood,

BEVERLEY,

HU17
9HX

7:30pm,
Tuesday 1st May, 2018

Doncaster
& District Family History Society

Doncaster
School for the Deaf,

Race
Course Roundabout,

Leger
Way,

DONCASTER,

DN2 6AY

7:30pm,
Wednesday 27th June, 2018

Norton & Campsall WI

Campsall Village Hall,Bone Lane,Campsall,DONCASTER,DN6 9AW

7:30pm,Wednesday 29th August, 2018

Spen
Valley Historical Society

Catholic
Church Hall,

Dewsbury
Road,

Cleckheaton,

BRADFORD,

BD19
5DL

7:30pm,
Wednesday 12th September, 2018

Bookings taken for “Evolution of Asylum Patient Photography”

Selby &
District Family History Group

Town
Hall,

York
Street,
SELBY,
YO8 4AJ

10:00am,
Tuesday 23rd January, 2018

Barnsley
Family History Society

Buckley
Church Hall,

Union
Court,

BARNSLEY,

S70 1JN

7:30pm,
Tuesday 17th April, 2018

Keighley
Local History Society

Keighley
Carnegie Library,

1
Albert Street,

KEIGHLEY,

BD21 2AT

7:30pm,
Wednesday 9th May, 2018

Bradford
Family History Society

Glyde
House,

Little
Horton Lane,

BRADFORD,

BD5 0BQ

10:30am,
Monday 21st May, 2018

Lancashire
& Manchester Family History Society,

Oldham
Branch

The
Lees Suite,

Civic
Centre,

West
St,

OLDHAM,

OL1 1UT

2:00pm,
Saturday 9th June, 2018

Rotherham
Family History Society

The
Liberty Church,
Station Road,
Masbrough,
ROTHERHAM,
S60 1JH

7:00pm,
Thursday 5th July, 2018

Huddersfield
Family History Society

Town
Hall,
Ramsden Street,
HUDDERSFIELD,
HD1 2TA

1:30pm,
Tuesday 4th September, 2018

Harrogate
& District Family History Society

St
Paul’s UR Church Hall,

Belford
Road,

HARROGATE,

HG1 1JA

7:30pm,
Tuesday 16th October, 2018

David will also be making his third visit
to Garforth Probus Club later this year, the venue where his speaking engagements
started in 2016. This will be the first delivery of his newest presentation Criminal Lunatics: Villains and Patients
a topic which he has been researching during 2017. During the 19th
century the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum cared for hundreds of mentally
ill patients admitted from the justice system where they had been accused or
convicted of a variety of crimes. What had caused their admission to the
Asylum? How were they treated while in the Asylum? What became of them? These
are just some of the questions which will be answered in Criminal Lunatics: Villains and Patients.

If you are interested in making a provisional
booking for Criminal Lunatics: Villains and
Patients it should be on "general release" from the beginning of November,
2018. Please get in touch with David to discuss likely dates.